Sunday, January 12, 2014

About six weeks ago Mark Schooling asked me if I could provide him with a trailer some time in January. Later we talked about some of his plans for the boat that would travel on that trailer. The gondola, known as “Teresa”, holds a very special place in US gondola history – another story for another time.

Since our first conversation about the trailer we’ve talked a few times about the challenges and blessings of running your own gondola business. Then, on Saturday, January 11th it was time: time to load the boat on the trailer and bring her to her new home.

This was a nice little gathering of gondola friends. Tim Reinard of Sunset Gondola was there, a gondolier from Tim’s operation, Chris and his girlfriend, along with gondolier Konnor Boivin from my operation, and of course, Mark – who was experiencing all of the wonderful and stressful emotions associated with boat moving, boat launching, and business launching too.

Photo by Amber Waddell

We met at the boat in the late morning, assessed the situation, and got busy loading her onto the trailer. We had many options at our disposal, but the Rugby Team approach made the most sense in this situation.

The gondola was lined up with the trailer, and heavy duty lifting straps gave us the ability to lift her with minimal rail-grabbing.